One of the best interviews of a top stand-up comic, this David Letterman piece gives an objective description of the performer's rise to national stardom.
It also dispels many myths about the process.
•Alec Baldwin is a particularly good interviewer, benefiting from his time co-hosting Turner
Classic Movies and his long career on national television."Here’s The Thing," Episode #18, June 18, 2012, New York City
radio station WNYC: http://www.stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/audioClips/heresthethingpod061812_dletterman_pod.mp3

Colin Quinn delivered the keynote address at the ComedyPro conference at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal on July 25, 2013.
Disclaimer:
•The accompanying web page was peppered with both misspellings and inaccurate
quotes; so, I am not linking to that abortion.
However, let me caution those who care about such things that:
•Colin does some peppering himself: adding adult language and
so much gratuitous use of the f-word that he comes across as an aging, punch-drunk
fighter who none-the-less has flashes of comedic brilliance.
•His cautioning the audience during his stumbling opening remarks that he is only working off rough notes in defiance of oddball requests from the festival's producers wisely sets the tone while reducing expectations from this well-liked SNL TV star and bare-knuckles club comic.
At first, I thought that his speech needed to be paused often so I could add
some clarifying annotations, and not mislead the uninitiated.
•However, Colin is just setting us up: he comes through like a champ, giving
pithy tips to open micers, local headliners, TV stars, comedy club producers,
agents and managers.

Anyone interested in hearing another valid voice from the comedy inside track
will find this a meaningful addition to our career-tips themed web page.

In 1998, with the success of "The Sopranos," talent found more freedom on TV
than in the film industry:
TV took over with more sophisticated stories
just as the Internet was maturing to provide different delivery systems for product.
Therefore, audiences will seek content providers who give them what they demand;
i.e., complex, smart stories available whenever they want and on whatever device
they want.

The risk now is to become too institutionalized by relying on just what is working

Cameras are platform agnostic. And to audiences, it is all content: "It's
just story!"

We must "observe, adapt and try things to discover appetites we didn't
know were there."

It is a myth to think that no one knows what works, that it is all a crap shoot:
•professionals do know what works.

"Not one of us in this room will ever see a 30
share in our lifetime,
and it's a wonderful, freeing thing."
("The Cosby Show" in 1986-1987 is the last weekly TV show, network
or cable, to get better than a 30 share in the Nielsen rating at a 34.9 share.)
Netflix placed targeted marketing and brand higher than ratings.

We no longer live in a world of by-appointment viewing.

The water cooler has gone online.

Stories are the great leveler, crossing borders to unite audiences."We have to work just a little bit harder to share these experiences together,
and try not to ignore each other quite so much."(Standing ovation, 52 seconds: definitely a headliner!)

Here is the highlights version (4:55):

And here is the full
version which is literally ten times longer(46:53) with some extra treats: